A conversation (part 3 of 4)

Jen – And yet you said you liked my last album after first saying you hated it? Which was the lie?

Rick – Neither time was exactly a lie. I never said I hated it in the first place, all I did was sigh-

Jen – which lead everyone to think you were dismissing it out of hand.

Rick – Maybe it did. But let me ask you something; you think that album had a hit on it? You really think so? A single that’d blow up? Climb the charts?

Jen – Yeah-

Rick – Now who’s lying. They were songs of depth, slow, weighted, deliberate. Songs that showcased your vocal range and your growing lyrical mastery. Since when does that combination lead to hits? Nah, it was always going to be a commercial failure even if it was an artistic triumph.

Jen – Oh? So what’s your solution oh great god of good music?

Rick – Solution? You made a great album. You shouldn’t have sold it as your official album. You put something like that out as a side project, get it out of your system. Maybe say it’s all part of a band you’re starting up. Then a few months later come out with an official pop album and maybe class that thing up by bringing in a few of the things you learned on the experimental band album. The mistake wasn’t the album, the mistake was trying to sell it as a Jen Rose album.

Jen – Madonna takes chances -

Rick – Not chances like that, she takes chances within certain set and safe constraints. She’s never done a country album, but she has put out a song with some country elements in it. Same with blues, jazz, she only takes her audience as far as she can but keeps it within her own element.

Jen – I thought you hated the music business? Why would you advocate manipulating it this way?

Rick – I don’t hate the music business. I think it generally does a good job of selling product. But I don’t like to think of music as product. Your last album wasn’t product, it was music. And music can be a hell of a hard sell.

Jen – We gotta stop talking about music before I kick you upside the head. What happened between you and Bea?

Rick – I screwed up real bad. See, I had to break up with her, I knew it, everyone knew it, I think even she knew it, but um, well, I thought she needed to hate me in order to get over me. So, I put her clothes in my drawers and parked my truck in the neighbor’s driveway, then I broke up with her and wound her up so tight that she snapped. She tossed my drawers, full of her clothes, onto the lawn and lit them on fire. Then she took a baseball bat that had been conveniently left at the front door and attacked the truck in MY driveway. Where my neighbor had parked when he realized I had parked in his spot.

Jen – You did what? That poor girl…,

Rick – In my defence; her face when she found out what she actually did was pretty hilarious. And it worked, she did end up hating me for a good while. The break up stuck. Unfortunately nothing else worked out about it.

Jen – What do you mean?

Rick – Well, the plan was for her parents to bail her out and take her home and then she’d take off for Harvard law and become the lawyer she was always meant to be. But the humiliation made her refuse their help and she decided to do it on her own. She got her own place, started working as a bartender and put money aside for Harvard. But Harvard’s real expensive, trust me on this.

Jen – You went to Harvard?

Rick – No, but she took on a case for me a while back and her payment was me paying her way.

Jen – Expensive. What was the case? Were you being sued for slander? Libel? Being a jerk?

Rick – No, my custody of Zach and Addy was under question and they were forced to go live with my Ma until the case was settled.

Jen – And to avoid those kids growing up to be like you, you had to make sure they were kept away from your mother.